The album, which Lamar labeled as a “short film,” tells the story of his life as a good kid in the mad city of Compton, Calif. He raps about trying to avoid temptations, including women, drugs, alcohol, violence and revenge. However, even the good kids succumb to temptation from time to time. The disc twists […]
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Freaky Friday
Maybe it’s too early, but what are you doing New Year’s Eve? Unless you’re Down Under, you’re not going to see The Flaming Lips’ annual New Year’s Eve Freakout. It’s true: Music’s favorite weirdoes will ring in 2013 in Australia, but in exchange, they’ve conjured up a holiday gift more appropriate than their usual end-of-year […]
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Reid all about it
Lots of guys get in trouble with their girlfriends for eating in bed. Norman singer-songwriter Kyle Reid was in the doghouse for building cigar-box guitars there. “Sawdust would get everywhere, including in my bed,” he said. “It didn’t bother me very much, because the sawdust reminded me of the work I had done that day, […]
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Cheap shoots
The notion of genre has become increasingly muddled with each passing decade. As technology progresses, so, too, do the means by which that music is produced. New sounds are born from new methods and ideas, and the traditional framework of a once-pure building block evolves into something completely its own. This is especially true of […]
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Whitey power
Photo: Clay Abbott While many critics are quick to label Whitey Morgan as part of the new breed of “outlaw country,” a movement begun in the 1970s by the likes of Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings, he is just as quick to put that dog down. “I don’t think there’s really any outlaw country these […]
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Back in black
For rockers Gooding, life as touring musicians isn’t just about the sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. It’s also about financial literacy. Wait, what? “Isn’t it the least rock ’n’ roll thing in the world? Shouldn’t I be carrying around a guitar and a bottle of Jack?” said Gooding, guitarist/singer and unimonikered namesake of the […]
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Lost Empires — Death and Evil Beasts
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:normal;mso-outline-level:1″> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:normal”> From the title alone of its new EP, Death and Evil Beasts, you get a feeling of where this six-song affair is going: This ain’t no Taylor Swift. Clocking in at around 20 minutes, the disc covers a lot of ground, musically. The old-school punk noise of […]
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Best of Bond … James Bond: 50 Years — 50 Tracks
With Skyfall landing in theaters Nov. 9, this season is no different … except that Capitol Records’ Best of Bond … James Bond has something else to celebrate: five full decades of the screen franchise. Therefore, this set throws in another disc’s worth of music that make it worth replacing the last disc you bought. […]
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Macklemore & Ryan Lewis — The Heist
On The Heist, the duo’s chemistry is apparent as always, as they strike a perfect balance between fun and reality. Macklemore spits thought-provoking, honest lyrics about everything from thrift shopping and Cadillacs to sobriety and marriage equality. Throughout the project, the rapper exhibits great rhymes and outstanding flow, clearly showing his strong lyrical ability. Lewis […]
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Shiny Toy Guns — III
It marks not only singer Carah Faye Charnow’s return to the band whose founders were born in Shawnee, but also a return to the New Wave synth-pop sound that made them famous. The opening trio of “Somewhere to Hide,” “Waiting Alone” and “Carrie” are just as synthsational as the band has ever been. “Carrie” is […]